Strip Malls and Big Box Stores Linked to Increased Traffic Deaths Among Seniors

Strip malls, big-box shopping centers and arterial roads are some of the most common elements of North American communities. They're in cities and suburbs all over the continent. They may also be causing senior citizens to crash their cars or get hit by cars at significantly higher rates than other parts of town.

According to a new report [PDF] from the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University, the nearly ubiquitous giant-parking-lot-plus-giant-retail outlet is associated with higher risks of injurious and deadly traffic accidents among people 75 and older. Seventy-five is the age when older adults become substantially more likely than other age cohorts to experience injury or fatality as a result of a traffic accident, mainly because of their increasingly frail bodies, but also due to their waning hearing and eyesight.